‘Chosen’

The Danfords: Lydia, Kendal, Anna, Jennifer and Jordan.

Three years ago, Kendal Danford and his wife Jennifer brought their daughter Anna home from China. Since then, two other Baptist Collegiate Ministry directors’ families have adopted children internationally. All three shared their personal experiences of choosing to welcome a child into their families, along with the lessons learned about being adopted into the family of God.

God had been speaking to Kendal Danford, BCM director at Francis Marion University, and his wife, Jennifer, about adoption prior to 2006, but it was at a conference that year that he learned about the fatherless around the world and “knew at that point we would adopt a girl from China.”

The family began praying with their daughter Jordan for the child they would one day adopt, and they trusted God to provide the more than $25,000 the process would cost. Jennifer took an extra job, the college students in their ministry held various types of sales, they sent letters asking for support, and the family marveled at the financial blessings they received from complete strangers.

During the waiting process, the Danfords were also surprised to discover that they were expecting daughter Lydia. Despite concern that the news might cause the adoption process to be interrupted or dropped, they continued to work toward being matched with a child.

The Danfords learned that, in the Chinese culture, a child born with special needs is often abandoned, so they chose to pursue adopting a special-needs child. In 2010, they were matched with a baby named Anna, who was born with a birthmark, a hemangioma, that ran from her neck down her arm. What the Chinese culture viewed as a symbol of bad luck, the Danfords see differently.

“Jordan used to say that she wanted to call her new sister ‘baby love.’ We thought that was sweet, but knew we wouldn’t name her that,” Danford said. “As it turned out, Anna’s Chinese middle name translates into ‘love,’ and the birthmark on her arm has a place that is shaped into an almost perfect heart.”

The process was not without challenges – the first being Anna’s reaction to being handed over to her new family. “We’d spent four and a half years of waiting, working and crying, building up to the moment when we met her, and we had to literally pull her off of her nanny,” Danford said.

In the time since, Anna has learned a new language, found her place in the family, and served as a beautiful example in the Danfords’ student ministry.

“It’s the story of the gospel: bringing hope to people who don’t have hope, living out the gospel as not just words on a page,” Danford said. “Our students have gotten a better picture of what it’s like to live out the gospel in whatever context that may be: championing the cause of orphans, human trafficking, caring for poor. Our adoption process was a part of that.”

After 13 years of marriage and the births of three children, Peter Hyatt said the Lord brought him up to speed with a calling his wife Tanya had felt for years: to adopt a child internationally.

The Hyatts: Lauren, Tanya, Hannah, Stone, Peter and Will.

“I’d been reading through the New Testament with a student, asking God to reveal how we could be more like Jesus and do what the Scriptures tell us to do,” said Hyatt, BCM director for Charleston-area colleges and universities. “God put a burden on me, and adoption became clear through reading James 1:27, which says pure religion is caring for the orphan and the widow.”

The couple began pursuing different avenues of adoption, seeking a child that would have the least opportunity to hear about Jesus. They worked through America World Adoption and focused on children from China. Undaunted by the roughly $37,000 adoption tab, Hyatt and his family believed God would provide for “what he was calling our family to do.” They were touched by the support from students in their ministry and the students’ tenacity in raising funds through garage sales and bake sales.

After a 15-month process, the Hyatts brought their son Will home in March 2012 to join big sisters Hannah and Lauren and big brother Stone. After the adoption was complete, Hyatt says the family is “even closer, because we had this common goal of bringing Will home.”

“It’s also been tough – it’s louder, noisier, and there is more laundry – but there is a lot of joy in knowing he is in our family, and his transformation has been unreal.”

Eleven months ago, Will spoke only Mandarin, had experienced little human touch, and had to fight for everything he had while in the orphanage. Hyatt says Will now can rest in his parents’ arms and give and receive affection and love.

Hyatt said his BCM students have been on the adoption journey with his family from the beginning. “They helped save an orphan; they were part of it,” he said. “Four or five students have said that they now want to adopt when they are of age, and I hope more will come after us.”

While he cautioned that adoption is not for everyone, he believes caring for the orphan is.

“Our adoption process has helped me understand better how God feels about me. I don’t have a right to be a son of [God’s], but I am a co-heir with Christ because he has willed me to be his son,” Hyatt said.

Anderson “Andy” Hunt came home for the first time on Sept. 29 of last year, a little more than two years after his parents, Doug and Shelley, began working to adopt him. Hunt, BCM director at Clemson University, and his wife had not thought about adoption before attending a Passion conference with Clemson students in early 2010.

“I attended a breakout session about the orphan crisis in Uganda and learned about our responsibility as believers to care for orphans,” said Hunt. “I was caught off-guard, overwhelmed – and left thinking, ‘I need to go to Uganda to get a baby.’ It was that raw.”

At the same time, in a cafe nearby, a barista thanked Shelley for the cup of coffee she’d just purchased because the money “would feed an orphan for a week.” Intrigued, Shelley watched a video about the mission of the company and walked away realizing the child who smiled so brightly at the close of the video might never know what it feels like to experience the love of a family.

After praying and researching, the Hunts were drawn to adopt a child from Ethiopia, a country they learned had roughly 5 million orphans. Their story of God’s providence and wonder in providing for the financial burden of adoption is similar to the other BCM directors. Their daughter Emily earned $500 in just two hours at her lemonade stand, a stranger they’d never met sent a $5,000 check, and volunteers purchased plane tickets for their two trips to Ethiopia.

In mid-July, the family laughed and cried with joy when they first saw pictures of a 6-month-old baby who needed a home. A few weeks later, in an Ethiopian courtroom, the Hunts heard the words, “He’s now your son; it can never be reversed.”

“That was an Ethiopian law, but we heard a deeper message about the love of God and how that can never be changed,” Hunt said. “That little boy from the other side of the planet who didn’t know us – in that moment became our son forever.”

After a difficult separation and a second trip a few weeks later, the Hunts finally introduced Andy to his big sister Emily and big brother James in the Atlanta airport.

“We have received a gift we don’t deserve, which is the opportunity to care for and raise this baby, to be his mom and dad, and to share Jesus with him. It’s an honor,” Hunt said. “We don’t even think about the fact that he looks different; he is part of our package now. He’s our son as much as our other children.”

When the three BCM directors are together at an annual student conference, Danford says it is “like the United Nations [with] children from different parts of the world.”

He likens the shared experience of adopting as a trial that has forged a common bond among the college ministry leaders and their families. That common experience is one that Hunt would like for the larger community of faith to embrace as well.

“In a big-picture way, the church needs to step up and help the orphans in the world more,” Hunt said. “There are an estimated 147 million children who have no home, and we, as the church, need to do something about that. Adoption elevates the truth of being adopted into God’s family. We are helpless and orphaned, weak and with no power. There is so much power in the adopting move of God.”

Danford agrees: “Adoption is a beautiful picture of the gospel. It’s who we are spiritually. We’re all spiritual orphans who are adopted into the family of God. I love that picture of being chosen.” – SCBC

The Hunts: Emily, Doug, Andy, Shelley and James.